Rockets’ offense explodes in fourth quarter for win over Pelicans

The Rockets took the half-full – or maybe that was the fourth-quarter full – way of looking at things.

They struggled for most of the game. They shot badly, couldn’t get consistent stops, saw a return of their old turnover problems. But with another game on the line, they were everything they needed to be.

Saving the best for last might not work for long. It certainly is not a way to go against Oklahoma City when the Rockets tip off roughly 21½ hours after finishing off the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night.

But as the Rockets walked off with a third consecutive win on a third consecutive strong finishing kick, they saw their 107-98 fourth-quarter blast past the Pelicans as a sign of a team growing up.

McHale satisfied

“We found a way to get a win,” said Rockets coach Kevin McHale, using almost the same phrasing he had two nights earlier. “We didn’t play particularly well, but we found a way to grind it out.”

Heading into the fourth quarter, James Harden had gone the second and third quarters without a field goal. Jeremy Lin had gone without a field goal since Thursday. Dwight Howard could dominate any defender the Pelicans threw in his direction, going 9-of-10 from the field, but he could not hang on to the ball, committing eight turnovers.

The Rockets were 3-of-21 on 3-pointers, taking a one-point lead into the fourth quarter only after a brief Aaron Brooks jolt of offense. But with five minutes left, the Pelicans were scoring easily, with consecutive Anthony Davis dunks giving New Orleans a four-point lead.

There had been signs of the turnaround. As he had in the fourth quarter Thursday, Lin got going a bit. Harden had picked up his first field goal since the first quarter. But in the final five minutes, the Rockets took over. Again.

The game began to turn when Terrence Jones ripped a rebound out of Tyreke Evans’ hands and then went coast-to-coast for a three-point play. From that point, the Rockets outscored the Pelicans 19-6.

Along came Jones

“Terrence has singlehandedly kept us in both our last two games,” Lin said. “He is doing it all for us right now.”

Howard passed to Lin in the corner for a 3-pointer. Harden followed with another 3. Howard made a pair of free throws. And when Harden Euro-stepped his way to the rim, the Rockets had scored 13 points in two minutes.

“That’s what I’m here for, to be a playmaker and finish games off,” said Harden, who scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, making all four of his shots after going 3-of-12 in the first three quarters. “Obviously, they’re not going to go in every time. Just take the big shots and make them.

“It was winning time. Our first three quarters, we weren’t great. We just stuck around. We played solid. We didn’t let them get too big of a lead. In the fourth quarter, when the time is right, we did everything we needed to to win.”

Lin steps up

Lin offered a similar finish, going from 0-for-6 through three quarters to 3-of-6 in the fourth a game after he had scored 14 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.

“It’s not an ideal strategy, but I am thankful that coach McHale left me in and let me keep going,” Lin said. “I have to do a much better job being more effective the first three.”

It was considerably less than ideal, but Howard, Jones and Chandler Parsons kept the Rockets in the game. The Rockets clinched it in the final two minutes. Parsons ripped the ball away from Davis, then followed his miss inside for a five-point Rockets lead with 61 seconds left. He then blanketed Ryan Anderson, allowing him only an off-balance missed 3-pointer.

Harden scored to seal it before Jones added another blocked shot to offer a reminder of where the turnaround started.

“We just kept playing,” Parsons said. “Guys didn’t get frustrated. Guys didn’t get down on each other. We just kept moving the ball, and we really stepped up on the defensive end. In the last four minutes we needed to get stops, and we locked in and got it done.

“It was another game kind of like Memphis. It wasn’t pretty and it was a grind-out kind of game, and we pulled it out at the end.”